Jalapa, Nebraska


Jalapa is a bygone town in Dodge County, Nebraska, United States. Located about south of Hooper on the north side of Maple Creek in Section 5 of the Nickerson Township. It is about north and nine miles west of Fremont.

History

Nebraska Territory, Dodge County, and statehood

The Nebraska Territory was established by the United States May 30, 1854. Nebraska was admitted to the Union as a state, March 1, 1867. Dodge County was organized by an act of the Nebraska Territorial Legislature during the winter of 1854–1855. Its initial boundaries were established by legislation dated March 15, 1855. The county was named for Augustus Caesar Dodge, then a U.S. senator from Iowa and a prominent supporter of the Kansas–Nebraska Act. As a member of the Senate Committee on Territories, Senator Dodge introduced the bill that created the Nebraska Territory.

Incorporation of Jalapa

Jalapa was incorporated as Jalapa City by an Act and Bill, House File No. 164, of the First Nebraska Territorial Legislature, March 16, 1855.

Early settlers of Jalapa

Orlando Allen Himebaugh – who moved from DeKalb County, Indiana, to Jalapa in June 1856 – was the proprietor of the Jalapa townsite and later became the first settler in Hooper. He and his brother, Pierson C. Himebaugh, initially lived in a small log cabin built of local cottonwood on what later became Orlando's farm, located on the north side of Maple Creek in Section 5, Township 18 North, Range 8 East of the 6th Principal Meridian in Dodge County, as defined by the Public [Land Survey System]. On February 5, 1859, in Dodge County, he married Elsina Canaga.

Jalapa Post Office

The Jalapa Post Office was established January 18, 1859, at the home of Henry Clay Campbell, who served as its first Postmaster. It was discontinued on July 11, 1870, and its operations were transferred to the Hooper Post Office. The closure coincided with the arrival of the Union Pacific Railroad in the Platte Valley, when stage-served way stations were consolidated as postal routes shifted to the railroad.
The Jalapa Post Office was where, on July 5, 1859, the Omaha, Fontenelle, and Fremont Companies met and selected Captain William Kline – of 1st Company, Fontenelle Mounted Rifle Rangers – as their commander in what became known as the Pawnee War of 1859.
Campbell's home was torn down sometime before 1928 by Jacob Garman Shaffer, owner of what had been Campbell's land.

Postmasters

  • Henry Clay Campbell, appointed January 18, 1859
  • William Elias Wilson, appointed February 11, 1868
  • Orlando Allen Himebaugh, appointed December 22, 1869
Campbell moved to Fontenelle around 1868 or 1869 and was appointed Deputy U.S. Marshall.
Campbell later became warden Nebraska State Penitentiary. He died August 5, 1873, while serving as Warden.
There is a monument, "Jalapa P.O. – Jan. 18, 1858" — "Fremont, Omaha and Fontenelle Volunteer Soldiers Assembled Here In Paunee War, July 5, 1859" — "Erected by Dodge County, July 5, 1928".

Jalapa School House

The site of the Jalapa Post Office Monument is about a quarter mile north of what was the present Jalapa school house, on the east side of the road.

Toponymy

The name "Jalapa" derives from the Nahuatl word Xalapan, composed of xālli and āpan, and is commonly interpreted as "sand by the water."

Pawnee War of 1859

The historical marker near the former site of Jalapa recalls that volunteer soldiers assembled there during what was known locally as the "Pawnee War" of 1859.
Despite the name, this was not a formal war but a brief frontier conflict sparked when a settler near Fontanelle, Uriah Thomas, reported that, on June 27, 1859, a group of Pawnee stole from him, money, land papers, and whiskey – and drove off a yoke of oxen. Rumors of widespread "marauding" quickly spread, with exaggerated reports that as many as 10,000 Pawnee were preparing retaliation. Governor Samuel Wylie Black ordered militia companies to muster, and a volunteer expedition under Col. John Milton Thayer marched toward a large encampment of Pawnee, Omaha, and Ponca.
When confronted, Native leaders surrendered seven young Pawnees accused of theft to avoid escalation. An escape attempt led to several deaths and injuries among the prisoners, after which the militia dispersed. Contemporary settler accounts remembered the episode as the "Pawnee War," but later historians note that the Pawnees' relations with settlers and the U.S. government were generally more cooperative than hostile, and that the 1859 conflict was more a reflection of settler fears than a sustained military campaign.

Notable people